Lita brace puts Royals through

Leroy Lita's double earned Reading a place in the last 16 of the FA Cup for the first time in nine years as they gained revenge for last season's exit at the hands of Birmingham with a 3-2 win.

Royals boss Steve Coppell fielded a much-changed line-up, but the clinical finishing of Lita, who has now scored 10 goals this season, killed off Blues.

Dave Kitson marked his first start since the opening day of the season with the opening goal for Reading, but City were left to rue spurning a host of opportunities of their own, with Cameron Jerome the main culprit.

The Royals needed only three minutes to go ahead through Kitson, who has been out for nearly six months with a knee problem.

Seol Ki-Hyeon made a pacey run to the by-line and swept past want-away defender Matthew Upson before cutting a low ball back across the Birmingham box. Kitson was the quickest to react and escaped the challenge of Martin Taylor before drilling a left-footed shot into the corner of the net.

Birmingham were made to pay for their lack of sharpness in front of goal when Lita doubled Reading's lead after 41 minutes.

Bobby Convey's persistence paid off when he shrugged off the challenge of Birmingham skipper Damien Johnson on the left flank and his low cross picked out Lita, who, despite the attention of Martin Taylor, was able to stab the ball home.

Birmingham needed to strike quickly after the restart to give themselves a chance of getting back into the game and within a minute Taylor had given them a lifeline.

Jerome stabbed the ball out to the former Blackburn player and his left-footed, 20-yard drive curled past Adam Federici into the corner of the net.

Lita made no mistake with nine minutes remaining when he tucked away a pass from substitute Simon Cox. Sebastian Larsson scored a consolation free-kick for Birmingham deep into injury-time.